Last Friday night at The Star in Sydney, strata professionals rolled out in their finest for the annual Gala Dinner and Awards Presentation. Strata Community Australia hosted the event which was sponsored by CHU Strata Insurance.

Greg Haywood delivered the opening address, commenting that there were some new faces this year as well as the familiar ones. Dr Hazel Easthope also provided her perspective on the judging panel. Dr Easthope is Senior Research Fellow, City Futures Research Centre at the University of NSW.

Bright & Duggan shared the award for Strata Management Business of Year (Large) sponsored by Express Glass. Alex Bozilo from the Bright & Duggan team also picked up Strata Manager of the Year sponsored by BAC Insurance Brokers.

Joint winners for Strata Management Business of Year (Large) was Strata Choice. Mercedes Priddy of the Stata Choice team picked up the award for Student of the Year sponsored by Real Estate Training Solutions. Luke Derwent was also highly commended for the Strata Manager of the Year award.

Strata Sense picked up the award for Strata Management Business of the Year (Small) for the second year running. Natalie (second from the right) had the honours of collecting the award this year.

This year the Young Strata Manager of the Year Award went to Andrew Tunks of Netstrata (fourth from the right). The award was sponsored by BPS Strata Maintenance.

Bannermans Lawyers won the Professional Commitment to Ethics and Service Award sponsored by Body Corporate Services. BCS Gosford also received a mention with Cathy Avery coming HIghly Commended for the Student of the Year award.

Adding to their collection, The Strata Owners Environmental Award was collected by Catherine Lezer on behalf of Strata Plan 68853 which is managed by Paul Culbi of Jamesons Strata. See their case study on Smart Blocks. The same building also won Strata Owners Community Engagement Award back in 2014 showing how engaged communities are making LED lighting and solar projects happen.

This year the Strata Owners Community Engagement Award, sponsored by Havencab was taken out by Strata Plan 31108. Havencab itself won the award for Services Business of the Year and came highly commended for the Professional Commitment to Ethics and Service Award.

The award for Innovation of the Year went to Wattblock. Pictured here Wattblock CEO Brent Clark is flanked by Melinda Dewsnap and Jonathan Boys from the City of Sydney. Wattblock has assisted over 600 strata buildings across Australia with energy efficiency assessments. The Innovation of the Year award was sponsored by BCB Strata Insurance Brokers.

The 2016 CHU Strata Community Awards are designed to recognise and reward those individuals and companies who make a significant contribution to the strata industry and community.

The judging panel members were selected for their exposure to the industry and for their great interest in fostering excellence.